Makes no Scents. Say Swiss Cheese.
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007In what looked like a photographic finish at the end of the year, Givaudan crossed the finish line in first place after buying Quest, beating out previous frontrunner Firmenich.
The essential oil/aromatic fragrance business is now dominated by two Swiss chemical giants, Givaudan, a public company, and Firmenich, privately-held. Firmenich claimed first place in its annual report in November, even though private companies don’t generally reveal their sales.
Fragrance houses appear to be fixated on critical mass. You need size for worldwide marketers who need lower prices and less-expensive aromatic blends, and only three or four companies can compete on those criteria.
In fragrances, Givaudan has about $1.45 billion in sales to Firmenich’s $1.2 billion. Givaudan was founded in 1895, as was Firmenich. Givaudan was bought by and spun-off by Valium producer Hoffmann-La Roche.
There are no more than a handful of top perfumers, but the industry launched approximately 150 new scents in 2006, many of which were derivatives of existent products. Xmas was a first-class stinker for sales, so, maybe consumers recognized the sameness. The industry is in a critical mess, looking for critical mass, which we’ll discuss in our next magazine.